Have You Seen Any Nazi Uranium? These Researchers Want To Know

"Timothy Koeth's office is crammed with radioactive relics – old watches with glowing radium dials, pieces of melted glass from beneath the test of the world's first nuclear weapon."

"But there is one artifact that stands apart from the rest: a dense, charcoal-black cube, two-inches on a side. The cube is made of pure uranium metal. It was forged more than 70 years ago by the Nazis, and it tells the little-known story of Germany's nuclear efforts during World War II."

"'From a historical this cube weighs a lot more than five pounds,' Koeth, a physicist at the University of Maryland, says as he holds it in his hand."

"The cube entered Koeth's life on a hot August day in 2013. He was out for a jog when a friend called him on his phone."

"'They said 'I need to meet you as soon as possible,' " Koeth says."

"Koeth told his friend to drive to a nearby parking lot. Twenty minutes later, he found himself staring at a small satchel in the trunk of the car. Inside, wrapped in paper towels was the cube."

"'I looked at my friend and I said, 'do you know what that is?' " Koeth recalls. "And my friend said, I think so, 'Do you know what it is?' "